A Costa Brava Millennium Convention

For many weeks (no, months) I had been getting cold feet about going down to the Budgerigar Society Millennium Convention at Eastbourne, the reason being that whoever I approached north of the Midlands, asking if they were going to the Convention, the answer was a blunt No!!

The follow up question "Why" always brought the response: "It’s too expensive; or it’s too far away; or we have heard most of those speakers before". Whatever the reason, the truth was that just a few from a line you can draw across the U.K. from the Midlands upwards to the Hebrides attended the Convention. And unless I am mistaken it was a similar situation with the exhibitors at the Show, with a mere handful exhibiting, despite the efforts by the B.S. to arrange free transport for their birds.

I was therefore quite surprised when I was confronted with so many people at the Hotel. Admittedly, many of those were familiar to me, but there was evidently strong support from the south of England and the Continent and it was this fact that ensured the success of the Convention.

There is no doubt that the Convention was a success. No one can dispute that fact and one could but admire the way it had been organised by Ghalib AlNasser and his band of helpers. The hotel was right on the prom. and we experienced Costa Brava weather throughout the weekend.

That certainly helped especially when we heard the rest of the country had experienced torrential rain with extensive flooding.

The lectures went down well, (apart from one incident), because the audiences were new to the U.K. lecture scene. Fanciers learnt a great deal about their hobby and ailments. That is what they had come to listen to. Their interest was in the birds and their management and to heck with politics and personalities. Every effort had been made to fill in the evenings with entertainment, again new, to those who attended. I was quite amazed at the energy Dave Hislop seems to have. He really kept things going and even managed to carry on throughout the two days as show manager without showing the strain.

Of course, every event has its minuses and the Convention did not escape its share. The biggest minus was the Show hall. It was situated in buildings too far away from the hotel and to be frank, it was not in keeping with the B.S. image. It was restricted in size and headroom and far too dark. The trade stands were sited in the adjoining room where the Festival of Birds was staged and they did little business according to reports reaching me. Many had trouble finding the show hall because of the lack of signs (an old, old complaint about signposting of shows). Since all activity was centred at the hotel, and the show hall being so far away this split things and this is something which should be avoided in the future.

Vic Wills from Redruth in Cornwall brought up an interesting point during our meeting in Eastbourne. We were discussing comments by fanciers about the failure of their birds to breed. He referred to the fact that when Champions commented on the birds which failed to breed, they were always their best ones. If you spoke with Intermediates, Novices or Beginners they all claim an identical situation: it is always their best ones which do not breed.

The question of course is defining the term best ones.

I believe that the term refers to the best looking ones. In other words those birds, which the owner feels would, do best on the show bench. They could also be the costly new purchases.

I am also of the opinion that few breeders refer to their best breeders as being their best birds. Unless I am mistaken, when people select their breeding pairs they usually chose first birds which are really exhibition ones.

They go for size as number one. Then comes feathering or width of brow, or head, etc. They will then (maybe) turn to their records and look from which pair the birds they like come from. Will they consider fertility? Frankly, I doubt it. Even if the bird they like was the only chick bred by a certain pair that year they would still refer to it as their best one and it would go into the breeding cage with their best cock or best hen.

I feel that with our obsession for breeding big exhibition birds we are overlooking fertility and are gradually breeding out fertility from our birds.

This is something, which has happened over the past decade, and you need only read comments by Champions, especially, of their pride in breeding one or two power birds. Those are the birds that have been winning. Those are the birds that are sold for the most money. Those are the shop windows, which sell the air-related ones. They look nothing like the Ideal of any country, but they are the ones which breeders want to breed.

There is no doubt that the most successful Budgerigar breeder of the decade is Jo Mannes. He is also the most successful exhibitor and his birds are eagerly sought after throughout the world. We have been friends for many years and I never cease to be amazed at the quality birds he always has in abundance in his aviary. We have often discussed those people who call there to buy a Mannes-type bird. Yes, birds like the ones, which are winners and are pictured in the fancy press. How many will ask for a breeder in preference to a good looker?

Jo Mannes has undoubtedly bred fertility into his stud and he knows the correct combination to breed top winners from those birds which are not such good lookers. Therein lies the secret of his success.

On one of my visits early last year to Frieburg I mentioned to Jo that I would be looking for outcrosses (breeder birds) later in the year. I was there in September and Jo brought out a number he said would breed. They were not exhibition birds by any means, but they would match the existing birds, which I have with Mannes genes. One, a double factor has so far produced 18 chicks and others are catching it up and I am very happy with the youngsters.

I am mentioning this because if the birds I brought back from Mannes were placed alongside those which Jo shows on the showbench I know without a doubt which ones 99 out of a 100 would select. They would not be the ones I had.

Coming nearer to home I feel Frank Silva is another fancier who is aware of the importance of breeder birds. Go to his birdroom and you will see chicks all over the place. Look at his breeding pairs and you will be amazed at some of the hens he has paired up to his winning stock. But just look at the chicks they produce. He is certainly getting the results.

Fertility is going to be the most important word of the future, believe me. It cannot be overlooked and many will have a tough time in deciding whether to pair best to best or step back for a short period to concentrate on quantity as being just as important as quality.

  © Gwyn Evans 2000